Pssst… you… yes you… Can you hear me?
You hear someone speak to you, but nobody is around. What if that was your reality? Being able to communicate with someone without the need for texts, calls, words, or even movement seems like a hard idea to grasp outside of a superhero’s world, but scientists are taking steps towards this “superpower”. Characters like Professor X, Jean Grey, and even Aquaman have been some of the coolest because of their unique ability to communicate without words or movements. While we haven’t yet achieved that level of communication, researchers are creating amazing brain-to-brain connections that show us telapathy is not based too far off from real possibilities. Not created through superpowers, magic potions, or spells, but through STEM.
Brain-to-Brain Connection
When you strip back the glitz and the glam from telepathy, what is left is simply a transfer of information from one brain to another. Neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis and his team explore this transference using a brain-to-brain interface (BBI), which is very similar to the brain-machine interface I wrote about in my telekinesis article here. This BBI uses the brain signal from a designated encoder and transfers it over to a decoder, which, using the encoder’s electrical signals, can receive information and solve tasks based on the encoder’s experiences and knowledge (Chappell, 2013). Apart from the ability to decode and transfer brain signals, the rats showed an ability to actively collaborate using this brain-to-brain connection. Researchers called it a demonstration of “…the first time that a direct channel for behavioral information exchange can be established between two animal’s brains without the use of the animal’s regular forms of communication” (Boston University, 2013). Thinking beyond rats, this type of communication could have bigger implications for collaboration between humans for complex tasks and problem-solving scenarios.
Challenges
As was the case with Telekinesis, one of the biggest hurdles when thinking of this technology is the complexity of the brain. As of now, brain-to-brain connections have only been possible in rats, though they are working to move towards monkeys. Researchers are still working to be able to transfer more complex patterns and even abstract thoughts/ideas (Boston University, 2013). Though the technique used to research this “telepathic” connection has been described as crude due to its limitations, it is still a big step towards telepathy between humans.
Conclusion
It is apparent that the type of telepathy we see in superhero movies is still a long way from happening, maybe it won’t happen, but this experiment proves that brain-to-brain communication is not just science fiction. With every experiment and new findings, researchers are getting closer to understanding what telepathy truly is and how information can be transferred between minds. I am excited to see how far STEM can take what we thought to be impossible to a near-future reality.
And as Professor X once said, “The greatest power on Earth is the magnificent power we all of us possess… the power of the human brain!”
References
Chappell, B. (2013, March 1). Researchers connect rats’ minds via internet. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/03/01/173257749/researchers-connect-rats-minds-via-internet
Telepathic rats communicate via brain-to-brain connections, » the nerve blog | Blog Archive | Boston University. (2013, March 8). © 2025 Boston University. https://sites.bu.edu/ombs/2013/03/08/telepathic-rats-communicate-via-brain-to-brain-connections/